This Is the Worst Day to Shop for Thanksgiving Dinner

You might know when the worst time to grocery shop on a weekend is — cough, cough, Sunday afternoon — so you avoid it. But you also probably think you’re skipping the worst Thanksgiving cart traffic by grocery shopping on a particular day, and we’re here to tell you that you’re really not. You’re hitting the brunt of it.

“Everyone thinks that on Wednesday they will contend with nightmare crowds, so they all try to beat the rush by shopping Tuesday,” Ruhlman wrote in his book. That turns Tuesday at your local Kroger into a nightmare, and Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, at your neighborhood Whole Foods or Wegmans, into a pretty relaxed option.

Ruhlman offered this advice from his website to give stressed-out shoppers and first-time Thanksgiving dinner chefs a break. “The bottom line is this, and it’s the mantra I want all anxious cooks out there to repeat continually: Everything will be fine. Really. Everything will be fine. Really.”